GERMAN football’s most hated man has revealed his company is on the brink of producing a vaccine for coronavirus.
Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp is widely reviled among rival fans for his large-scale investment in the Bundesliga club.
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Dietmar Hopp believes that his company may have found a vaccine for coronavirusCredit: Rex Features
Just weeks ago their clash with Bayern Munich was repeatedly halted when Bayern fans displayed banners branding Hopp a “son of a b*tch.”
But the businessman, 79, is majority shareholder of German drug company CureVac.
The Tubingen-based firm is developing a vaccine against coronavirus, the deadly pandemic that has swept the globe in recent months.
And Hopp believes the vaccine could be on the market in under six months once German licensing authorities have given it the green light.
He said: “I think our new vaccine against coronavirus should be available by this autumn.
“That would be in time for the next potential wave of infections.
“Tests first have to be carried out on animals, and then on people.
“The release date depends on Germany’s national institute for vaccines, the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
“It makes no difference to me if the success of the vaccine alters my reputation with football’s Ultras.
“It is important for me that CureVac is rewarded for its 15 years of research. We’ve had our setbacks.
“But I have never doubted my team, I have funded them, and it is a great feeling now.”
American president Donald Trump is understood to have been impressed by CureVac’s work, and sought a deal whereby the company supplied vaccine exclusively to the US.
Hopp is despised by German football ultrasCredit: AP:Associated Press
However Hopp told Sport1: “It can’t be that a German company develops the vaccine and it’s only used in the USA. That was never an option for me.
“I didn’t speak with President Trump, but he spoke with the company.
“They asked me what I thought, and I knew straightaway that a deal of that nature was not on the table.”
Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich players let the clock run down after Bayern fans unveil insulting banner towards Hoffenheim owner
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
